Hi, I’m Joe V. The V is for Vadeboncoeur, but no one ever really calls me that (except my business card). That card also calls me the Global Director of Product Development, Marketing and Creative Design for Trek Bicycle. Yep, I am sometimes not really sure what all that means either. I do know that I dig bikes, oatmeal, motorcycles, burritos, the weird things I see along the way, my family and my job. I get to travel the world helping make great bikes, so it’s a pretty great gig.

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February 2011

February 24, 2011

It is kind of a popular sentiment: When your heroes are larger than life, you might not really want to get to know them. When you get to know your heroes, there is a chance they may not live up to their public image. When you get to know them, you realize that they are human. They make mistakes, they have trouble with their relationships, they say awkward things, they crunch their car in the parking lot at the mall, they get a bad haircut…in other words; they become human when you get close to them.

For a long time, Lance Armstrong has been one of my heroes. When he first came back from cancer, we all watched with amazement and hoped for the underdog. We all knew someone who had been touched by the disease, and we wanted him to conquer because not everyone else had. He was a hero and everyone was a fan in those early days of Comeback 1.0.

In 1999, I was at the Tour de France. Trek was doing a mountain bike intro nearby, and we decided to take the journalists to the race. Not because we somehow knew what was going to happen that day, but because those who say they are not really interested in the Tour de France, have just not yet been there. It is, of course, the single greatest sporting spectacle in the world. We were at the summit of the Galibier that day in 1999, when Lance came over with the front group and then went on to put the race away on the Sestriere. I was in awe of the display. I immediately called the road bike brand manager at Trek and told him, “I know this is crazy, but I think he can win this.” How silly my shock sounds now, right?

People who follow cycling like to rooti for the underdog. So, it was natural for everyone to root for Lance when he was the comeback kid. It was also in a lot of cycling fans' nature to turn against him when he became uber successful. Trust me, even people who say they are not fans now, were fans back then.

For me, he never fell from being one of my hero’s. When he won more, he just became more of a hero. I loved to see him ride at the front of the group all the time and wait for his competitors to wilt. I loved to see him attack. I loved to see him chase back after being knocked down. It was always exciting and fun.

I also know that during all of this, he was doing everything that he could to help kick the proverbial butt of cancer as fast as he could. Trying to help millions of people around the world. He was helping his foundation and seeing cancer victims in person around the world. He retired, and some people were glad. I was thankful that I got see him race, and I understood that it could not go on forever.

Then Comeback 2.0 came along. I was excited because I got to see the hero in action again. Sure, he fell down a lot more. Sure, he suffered injuries. Sure he had a run of bad luck that didn't strike before. Sure it was not always graceful. But he was still badass and he still remains one of my cycling heroes.

Tough guy!

There are a lot of people in the cycling world who now claim that he was never their hero. There are also people out there debating if Lance’s legacy changed cycling and the cycling world. I do not really care to get involved with that debate. I will leave that for others to spend too much time on.

I do know, that I have been lucky to get to know one of my heroes. Not as well as I would like to, but I am fortunate nonetheless to have gotten to know him the small amount that I do.

At the beginning of this, I talked about the dangers of getting to know your heroes and having the veneer stripped away. For me, getting to know him and watching a rough Comeback 2.0 did not change anything.

With Lance announcing his retirement for the final time, Comeback 2.0 comes to an end. I do not know what Lance will do next, but I know that whatever he does will involve helping as many cancer victims as he can.

February 15, 2011

One day you wake up, and there it is staring you in the face. It is a little bit like when Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors movie realizes that Seymour has been right there the whole time. (That would be Audrey the girl, not Audrey II; the man eating flower.) The flower is banished, and they live happily ever after. It is a bit like that. Bam! There it is. Spring. Right around the corner. And don't even tell me that you do not have the song in your head now, unless you have the song from the dentist office in your head.

I really want to ride my bike, real bad, and tomorrow I am going to do that. Wow, it is going to be 45 and then the next day 50. There is still snow on the ground, but only off the roads now. I am sure we are not really done with winter, but I will take this brief respite.

Ever wonder how you got here? You know, here with your bike jones? Well here is my story.

When I was a kid, I rode a bike. We all did, right? Mom and Dad got us bikes when we were little. You know a trike was under the tree at Christmas, or a little bike was handed down from our older siblings or Grandma and Grandpa brought a bike or the cousins had an extra one or probably about 50 other reasons that the first bike would show up in the garage.

A major milestone was when you first learned to push the pedals around and get down the driveway. The hill back up the driveway was too big, so you would push the bike back up and then do it all over again. Back in those days we didn't wear helmets. But I have photos of my kids doing the same with their helmet bouncing down over their eyes as they pushed their way back up the drive.

But, somewhere along the line for most of us, bikes were lost their cool. That first set of keys the car in the driveway opened up a whole new world. Cars were a big deal back then. Everyone had one, gas was cheap and a car got you a lot further along the way. Some of us never made it back to the bike. What a shame.

In my case, I still wanted to be on 2 wheels, so I ended up with a motorcycle. Got me just about as far as the car would get me, a little tough in the winter, but even after a few icy road crashes - I made it work. I never lost the feeling of freedom and the feeling of being so much closer to the elements that only 2 wheels can give you. When I got to college, I actually could not afford the motorcycle either. So, back on a bike I was.

In case at this point you needed to see what parts made up a bike.

In reality, I was back on a bike for the obvious reason of the broke starving college student, but I was also back on a bike because I had developed Adult Scoliosis and had a pinched nerve in my back. My plan of being a runner was not working out as I had hoped (thank God). The bike helped all of that, and I remembered that I was really more of a cyclist than I was a runner.

So, I moved to Colorado and started racing bicycles. I went fast here and there, but was generally pack fodder. You know the type, train and train and train and still battle for 10th place in the 3-4 race (back then there was just category 1-4, and often times there was not enough people to fill out the groups so we raced together.) I learned within a couple of years that I was not going to be winning the Coors Classic.

I got married, I got jobs, I had a family, etc... but, I never lost my bicycle jones. I was lucky that way.

Somewhere in there, mountain bikes happened. I was back racing in the dirt, rediscovering skills that were dormant from my time as a child motocross racer. Mountain bikes allowed my lack of natural motor to be masked by my ability to ride a wheelie, skid, and go over the rough stuff. What a great deal.

Now, I know that I cannot have enough bikes. There is always room for another one to have in the garage. I am fortunate that I have the job I do. It allows me to have a lot of bikes. You really cannot have too many, can you?

Here are a few of the bikes I have around right now, and a word or two about them.

Remedy

This is probably my absolute favorite bike these days. It is almost a do-it-all bike. I can ride the dirt jumps if I change the pedals, I can race the thing and it is the absolute best bike I can imagine for a huge trail ride.

Ticket

This is my little jumper bike. I use it at Rays MTB park, all winter. During the winter it gets outfitted with some slick-type tires. In the summer, I will mount up some knobby tires to run at our little dirt jump park out at the trails. I am a crummy jumper, but I am trying to learn.

Floor is kinda dirty there, but that is the Ticket.

Custom Fuel EX SS

It gets fun here. I have always liked singlespeed bikes, but I just cannot do the hardtail thing for an offroad bike (other than a jumper hardtail). I know that probably means that I am getting old. But, WTH. I have been working on this little project bike. The guys in the race shop started it up for me, and I have been massaging it into something. It is a new Fuel EX carbon frame, DRCV rear shock, Kashima coated 140mm Fox fork and a YESS singlespeed device. I have only ridden it yet at Rays on the XC loop, but it appears to be working pretty well so far.

Pretty psyched for spring with this one.

Madone Livestrong Team bike

Back in the summer of 2009, there was a risk that the Astana team would not have the budget to get the team through the season. There was a back up plan, and these were possibly going to be the frames for the team. It did not happen, so the sample frames needed to go somewhere. This is just the 5 series frame, that was painted as a sample. Built up with a mix of DA and Ultegra. It is my back up bike.

That is an "I Ride For Chris Funk" sticker on the chainstay. Miss you Chris.

Madone 6 SSL

This one is my new Madone 6 series. I am on a plain bike kick lately. I am also really into black. This one is a full Shimano Di2 Dura Ace model, new team LEOPARD TREK team wheels - all completely blacked out.

Black, all black. Looks sinister.

Commuter bike

There is a commuter bike in there. Used mostly to ride to work. It is a single front ring with a 9 speed rear. There are not many hills on my commute.

Session WC

There is almost no bike that is more fun than the Session is. You can make yourself feel like a DH champion, just by pointing it downhill. It is light, it jumps well and it will make you smile every time you ride it.

The Session in Action at Whistler

I need a bigger garage. There are still so many more bikes that I need. A few on the list:

- RadioShack Madone

- LEOPARD TREK Madone

- District

- and many more.

And don't even get me started about the bikes that we have not come out with yet.

Now, what should I ride tomorrow? I sure hope that Audrey II plant didn't make it through the winter. I do really dig bikes.

February 02, 2011

You know how it is, you wait and wait for something to happen, and then when it does it seems like it blows right by. It was that way when you were a kid with Christmas and your Birthday. It is that way now with vacation plans and the cycling trip that you just cannot wait for. You spend months preparing, sorting gear, planning each day and step. Then, all too quickly it is done.

Unfortunately, it is never that way with winter. Winter kinda blows in somewhere in November, settles into something that is not so bad for the month of December. That makes you say something like, “this is not so bad. I can handle this winter thing.” But, if you live here in the upper Midwest, winter is just toying with you. Somewhere along the way, winter slams you down to the ground and then drives right over you with the snowplow blade lowered. January comes and the blizzard of the century smacks you in the face (again). February comes and the weather just settles into a long grey period of cold. March comes and you get taunted with a warm week and then winter laughs at you with a 10 inch snowstorm. It is just not fun.

You spend lots of time in the garage, cleaning your bicycles and motorcycles, marking the days off your calendar that you are still not riding. You ride the stupid trainer, you go to the gym and do your workouts, you go back out to the garage and clean your bikes and motorcycles again. You mark more days off the calendar. You watch mountain bike videos, you analyze your training log from last year to find out where you went wrong, you go back out to the garage and clean your bike and motorcycles. You ride the stupid trainer and go to the gym. You put new cleats on your shoes, you go to the bike swap and sell your old clothing (that is another story in itself, people will actually buy old cycling clothing), you go back out to the garage again and clean your bikes and motorcycles. It gets really long.

But, then Rays MTB park announces that it is opening in Milwaukee. Winter mountain bike goodness is coming to your back yard. Finally, you will not have to drive all the way to Cleveland. Woohoo! Then you start the long wait and marking the days off the calendar until it opens. It is a bit like the Christmas and Birthday calendar from your childhood.

In my case, I started counting towards the opening of Rays all the way back in the summer. Ray was over there in the old Menards building, throwing up ramps and skinnies and jumps and, yep. You know, just making us all salivate. Then, the wheels came off and we hit the skids and ran into problems getting all of our permits etc..., and we did not open. Ugh…

But, I am proud to say, finally we did. And wow, what a grand opening it was. The place is incredible.

This past weekend was that grand opening. I was there on Saturday. I am super excited to say that there were about 375 other cyclists there. 375! 375 cyclists that normally have been sitting in their living room in January, waiting for spring. Marking the days off their calendar, riding the trainer, sorting their old clothing and complaining about living in Wisconsin.

Not any more though. From now on, they are riding skinnies, jumping their bikes, ripping around on the XC loop and just enjoying being on their bicycle. Eventually, we will have to build more new things to ride on, eventually there will be an expectation that things will change between your visits there. But for now, it is just great to see that if we build it, they will ride it. Thanks for the opportunity Ray.

We had a bunch of cycling media there. We had pro athletes there. Ray was there. It was crazy amounts of fun. I cannot wait to be back there next weekend. See you there.

The new phone book is here!

That is the preview video that we posted before the park opened!

That is the park on opening weekend, but before the grand opening party!

That is my daughter Hanna with Heather Irmiger from the Trek Subaru team. (Yeah, they are not quite the same mountain biker)

That is Jimmy Mac from Mountain Bike Action enjoying enjoying the G's in the middle of the turn on the sweet pump track

Lest we forget... There is Cleveland, and it really is a fantastic place to ride.